GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 30 – In this lush, affluent region where adultery is so ingrained that wealthy businessmen keep their lovers in “concubine villages,” infidelity is often tolerated in a marriage. But Cai Shaohong could not put up with it.
So against the advice of her parents, Ms. Cai, 29, decided in June to leave her husband. Five years of marriage dissolved after 30 minutes of paperwork. She celebrated at a teahouse with friends. By August, Ms. Cai was advising a friend who had also decided to end her marriage with an unfaithful spouse.
“Several of my friends have gotten divorced,” Ms. Cai said this week during a break at her office, explaining how things are changing here. “My friends think divorce is normal, not an unthinkable thing.”
Divorce was once a dreaded fate for women in China. Now, many younger urban women like Ms. Cai view it almost as a civil right, which has helped drive up divorce rates. One government study found that women had initiated 70 percent of divorce applications here in Guangdong Province, where the number of divorces increased by 52 percent last year.
